At a micro level, scheduling is the minute planning of the transmission; what to broadcast and when, ensuring an adequate or maximum utilization of airtime.
Characterized by an off-beat style appealing to young adults, Late Night helped launch the career of host David Letterman, and influence later entries into the genre.
This proposal led to a public conflict between O'Brien and NBC, and ultimately resulted in his departure from the network, and the reinstatement of Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show.
ABC commissioned a minute-by-minute Nielsen ratings report, which showed that the majority of viewers from Roseanne had been retained during the premiere.
[25][26] Owing to both programs' news comedy formats, the Comedy Central program The Daily Show used newscast-style toss segments to promote its new spin-off and lead-out, The Colbert Report, in which host Jon Stewart would engage in a comedic conversation with the latter's host, Stephen Colbert, via split-screen.
Typically, these involve programs that form a single franchise or shared universe, such as NBC's Chicago franchise and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (all created by Dick Wolf),[32] and the ABC dramas Grey's Anatomy and Station 19 (both created by Shonda Rhimes).
[34][35] Despite frequently being among the top U.S. television broadcasts of all time, the Super Bowl has had a prominent history of being counterprogrammed in this manner.
[38][39][40] In some cases, broadcasters may attempt to adjust their schedules in order to avert attempts at counterprogramming, such as getting a slightly earlier time slot (in the hope that once viewers have become committed to a show they will not switch channels),[41][42] scheduling the competing program on a different night, or moving it to a different portion of the television season to avoid competition altogether.
Outside of serial drama formats such as telenovelas where popular, strips are rarely used for first-run entertainment programming outside of limited events.
[46] While longer marathons are typically reserved for major events, the popularization of binge-watching via streaming services in the 2010s led to many U.S. cable networks adopting marathon-like blocks of programs as their regular schedule.
[49][50] To compete with the release practices of streaming services, TBS premiered entire seasons of its police sitcom Angie Tribeca in a marathon format.
[51][52] Similarly, free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services often feature linear channels that are narrowly-focused towards specific programs or franchises.
[54] Themed schedules are a common practice around major holidays—such as Valentine's Day, Halloween, and Christmas—where channels may air episodes of programs, specials, and films that relate to the holiday.
After experiencing success with its Countdown to Christmas event, Hallmark Channel adopted a practice of dividing its programming into similarly-branded "seasons" year-round, which are accompanied by thematically appropriate original series and television films.